referencing george orwell's "shooting an elephant" - deciphering silence

 (the things we think about in writing class)
Peter and JB have been asking us to figure out silence and write about it.

I think of growing in silence as a discipline. It is uncomfortable, even when we are responding to something, because we are forced to come face to face with the deepest reaches of ourselves - the dark things we hate, the annoying habits that we can't seem to tame, the rawness of us, us the way we are. Maybe I'm just talking about myself here. And all the rest of the world who can't sit still and just think in a quiet place for long enough to make anything meaningful out of it.

Through learning our silence, learning to embrace it and soak it in and accept what comes with it, we can learn to be teachable, to be open, to direct our thought and focus toward importance (like a painting hanging on a wall, a few words lost in the fine print of a heavy book, maybe someone around you who is struggling). I want to get better at learning in silence, or just experiencing it I guess.